Generally, a personal video recorder (PVR) includes a non-volatile storage built in a TV or a set-top box to record a broadcast signal or other input signal, and thus, to record a program, and to provide the recorded program to the user when the user desires to view the recorded program.
Recently, the domestic use of a digital broadcast receiver having a digital video recorder (DVR) function has increased. Such a digital broadcast receiver, which has a DVR function, stores a broadcast stream received from a broadcasting network in a hard disk included in the digital broadcast receiver, and outputs and plays back the stored broadcast stream at a time desired by the user.
In particular, the digital broadcast receiver can achieve reserved recording without using a separate recorder, by virtue of the DVR function thereof. Typically, reserved recording in a digital broadcast receiver having a DVR function is manually carried out in the unit of a program such a manner that the user designates respective recording time and channel information for programs to be recorded, through an electronic program guide (EPG).
Recently, in addition to the spread of digital broadcast receivers, a digital broadcast receiver DVR including a storage medium to record/reproduce digital broadcast data has been developed.
As the digital broadcasting is regularized, it is expected that such a DVR will rapidly substitute existing video cassette recorders (VCRs). The digital broadcast receiver DVR is equipped with a high-performance central processing unit (CPU) and uses a system in which digital broadcast programs are recorded in a storage medium such as a large-capacity hard disk drive (HDD) in the unit of a file. Thus, the digital broadcast receiver DVR has advantages in that it is possible to easily retrieve a desired one of the stored programs, and to simply and conveniently carry out repeated playback or editing of the retrieved program.
The digital broadcast receiver DVR also provides an EPG function, in order to provide an enhanced convenience to the user. The EPG may be considered to be similar to a table which appears on a newspaper to show the list of all programs to be broadcasted on the day of issue of the newspaper. The user can store the category, title, outline, etc. of a desired program, together with the program, upon recording or reserved-recording the program, using the EPG data.
In particular, the programs are classified into a high class, a middle class, and a low class in terms of category information, even though there may be a slight difference in the classification between different broadcasting companies. The category information of each program includes the feature information of the program.
Recording a broadcast program using a conventional digital broadcast receiver DVR is simple. That is, reserved-recording of a general program can be achieved by directly setting the time, at which the reserved-recording for the program is to begin, and the recording period, through a DVR remote controller, or setting the reserved-recording of the program, based on the EPG program data.
PVRs have a function for informing the user of the recorded objects in the form of a list that can be viewed by the user. However, when the user uses the reserved-recording function or does not view a recorded object immediately after the recording of the object, the identification of recorded objects should be carried out through the list of the recorded objects displayed in accordance with operation of the remote controller.
For this reason, it is necessary to provide a method enabling the user to easily recognize the existence of a new record and to easily access the record.